Category Archives: Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 122 – 4/17/2023

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today begins with contemplating so many dream images leading me to thinking of caterpillars and how their massively consumptive nature as they approach the end of their existence reminds me of where we humans are in part and i quickly say to caterpillars that i mean no offense and thank them for the role they play in transformation which leads to more compassion for us as humans real-eye-sing this unraveling time is necessary which leads to my wanting to share once again a favorite image of the old woman who weaves the worlds as a beautiful tapestry which unravels and rather than melting down, she picks up one of the loose threads and begins weaving the more beautiful world we can all imagine and weave into reality and bringing up this image moves me to Mary Oliver and one of her poems i so love:

Halleluiah

“Everyone should be born into this world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I’m not where I started!

And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the world is
and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.

Halleluiah, I’m sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.”

awe so, may we all have more and more moments of feeling we have wings and here is Walt Whitman with more sage words on walking in beauty:

“This is what you should do:
Love the earth and sun and animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants,
argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people…
reexamine all you have been told in school or church or in any book,
dismiss what insults your very soul,
and your flesh shall become a great poem.”

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 121 – 4/16/2023

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this sacred moment of astonishing light sings at the frequency of liberation, liberation arising from  letting go; it sings at the frequency of love and surrendering to the cosmic hum which whispers only love is real; today simply sings the call of spirit… i listen and re-member…

tweleve years ago today, a day vibrating at the master frequency of eleven, the LIGHT frequency, i coded and an angel of rainbow tinted white light came into me and flowed through me as she always does in times of troubled waters, in moments of great peril…

spontaneously appearing as a vortex of whirling white light, this winged angel of flight activates a mysterious flow of healing energy sacredly, secretly, silently, softly, supportively, synchronisticly… i hear the team of earthly angels celebrating getting a pulse going in me, i’m returning to the land of the living, returning to the miracle of being breathed alive in this moment, in every moment… 

thousand fold thanks, dear angel of light, for watching over us in the dark of the night, in the light of the day, for breathing and weaving the all that is in the rhythm of waves of love energy, home to freely flowing rainbow mystery…

thank you, dear co-hearts, for sharing this journey, for walking home together into the field out beyond where we’re filled with the inner sea of luminescent love energy…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 120 – 4/15/2023

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“There is no path to peace; peace is the path.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh~

in this critical moment of eternity, we must commit to truly being peace; to follow this call, listen generously to some of the sage words from the Plum Village community’s Open Letter for Peace:

“Our community’s own roots lie in the tradition of Engaged Buddhism in Vietnam, where more than three million people died in a war that lasted nearly 20 years and some two million fled as refugees. We know from our teacher that war is never a solution. It leads only to division and hatred that can last for generations.

Our teacher worked tirelessly for peace in Vietnam by never choosing sides. Instead, he appealed to adversaries to look deeply into each other’s pain, anxiety, and existential fear, and to consider the war’s horrific toll on all victims. Forced into exile, he became a spiritual leader of a global movement for peace, reconciliation, and disarmament. We believe our teacher’s universal message of peace can offer hope at this pivotal time…

The Buddha tells us that our true enemy is not to be found in others but in our own fear, anxiety, and sorrow, our anger, greed, ignorance, and hatred. War is made possible by dualistic and discriminative thinking, and by the idea that only by eliminating our so-called enemy can we have peace and security. But as the Buddha said, hatred cannot resolve hatred. Only understanding and love can transform hatred.

As our teacher has said, when there is peace in ourselves, there will be peace in the world… We pray, too, that precious global resources can be redirected from war to where they are most needed, namely, to tackle disease, poverty, hunger and malnutrition, human trafficking – including exploitation of vulnerable children – environmental stress, and climate change.

Our world needs a culture of peace. Our human family needs to accelerate to a higher stage of evolution; to a “cosmic” spirituality and ethic that can unite all peoples and nations, removing separation and discrimination. In this spirit, as a community of Engaged Buddhism, we renewed our commitment on New Year’s Eve 2021 to practice mindfulness for peace on earth. Below, we share with our love this solemn vow.

The work of peace is the work of great and noble beings… our most urgent task is to invest all our energy and skills in exploring every viable option for peace at this time of great danger for humanity.

All our ancestors and descendants are counting on us.”

let us rise to the call by being peace with every breath…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 119 – 4/14/2023

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“But most important, we love the water. Every year, our people sacrifice. We go four days without drinking water, so that it reminds us how important this water is. And I ask everybody: Do you go four days without water? What happens to your body on that third day? Your body starts shutting down. So, we remind ourselves every day how important. We say mni wiconi, water of life. Every time we drink water, we say mni wiconi, water of life. We cannot live without water. So I don’t understand why America doesn’t understand how important water is. So we have no choice. We have to stand. No matter what happens, we have to stand to save the water.”

~ Ta Maka Waste Win, Her Good Earth Woman ~ (LaDonna Brave Bull Allard)

i learned around this day two years ago of the death of a being of astonishing light, Her Good Earth Woman, Standing Rock tribal historian, who died of cancer at the age of 64… co-founding the Sacred Stone Camp on her family’s Standing Rock land in April 2016 to resist the Dakota Access pipeline, people from around the world traveled there making it one of the largest gatherings of Indigenous peoples in a century… let’s listen to more of the wisdom from this elder who inspired and inspires the world…

“I told Dakota Access that if I’m the only person standing, I’m standing. They will not build this pipeline. I have personal reasons, though, you know? You know, my son is buried there. And I’m just a mom. But in my mind, I can’t conceive anybody to build a pipeline next to my son’s grave. So, like I tell everybody, it’s not some grandiose “save the world.” It’s just a mom. So, that’s just on my personal side. But did you see where I live? Oh my god, it is so beautiful. I mean, every day the buffalo are out there. The eagles are out there. I love my river…

I tell people that this is not about just this pipeline. It’s about the water. It’s about the water. It’s about having the right to live our lives. It’s about being able to make sure my grandchildren has clean water. To me, it’s just like common sense. And so, we must — we must stop this…

We are fulfilling prophesy now. The prophesies our people told a hundred years ago are coming to pass. I see them before my eyes. Nothing is going to go back. We can only change. My whole idea is to have the world change their worldview, that maybe we can live with the Earth instead of destroying the Earth. And I’m hoping that all people can get that message…”

may Her Good Earth Woman’s dream, the prophecy of the black snake (oil pipeline) and her teachings to love the land and water be fulfilled…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 118 – 4/13/2023

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Vaya con Gaia en Paz, Amor y Alegri’a Bodhisattva Blessing

we have come to this world to be this…

we have come to this world to see this…

we have come to this world to become this…

we have come to this world to hear this…

~

we have come to this world to see this:

all our relations living as one

we have come to this world to hear this:

all our relations breathing as one

~

all our relations living as one

dancing our prayer as we turn around the sun

all our relations breathing as one

flowing in beauty to the cosmic moon hum

~

we have come to this world to be this:

beloved community serving in joy

we have come to the world to become this:

one tree of interbeing rooted in earth, sheltered by heaven…

~

once upon a time long, long ago there was a king whose luxurious lifestyle threatened his kingdom… despite his excesses, each year, following ancient custom, he made offerings to a tree known for its healing power, asking for the tree’s protection…

the buddha, as the consciousness of that tree, thought: “This king’s selfishness threatens the realm. I must save him and his kingdom.”

that night the tree bodhisattva appeared like a burning bush in the king’s bedchamber and said, “Great king, due to your selfish ways, your kingdom will fall into ruin. Go among your people and learn the truth.”

shaken, the king donned ordinary clothes and left the capital city eventually coming across a man whose forest home was fenced by thorny branches… when the man pierced his foot on the thorns, he blamed the king since the man had lived in the city, but he’d fled to the forest because of thieves and tax collectors, that is, because of the king’s mismanagement of the city… in pain, he cursed the king: “May he be pierced in some fray as I’ve been pierced today.”

hearing this, the king wanted to turn back and set things right but the tree bodhisattva inspired the king to continue onward…

next, he saw a woman fall under a load of firewood. without money, she couldn’t provide the dowry for her daughters and without husbands, her daughters weren’t safe gathering firewood in the forest so the woman had to do it herself… blaming the king for her poverty, she cursed him as well…

the king then went on to encounter a plowman, a dairyman, a cow grieving the loss of her calf, and a frog being eaten by a crow… each one blamed the king for their misery and cursed him and the king—having learned his lesson—finally returned home… from then on, he ruled wisely and the kingdom prospered…

we know today that forests form a worldwide web of compassionate intercommunication with older trees guiding nutrients to younger kin, younger ones do the same for aging tree relatives… trees shelter so many lives with squirrels, bugs, birds, snakes, fungi, insects, and grubs finding homes in them. humans shelter beneath their branches, gather fruit, nuts, bark, and sap for medicine and food… then in death, trees add nutrients to the soil; we build houses from their bones…

over hundreds of millions of years, plants and trees formed soil and transformed our barren rock into a garden. Now they oxygenate our atmosphere and pull heavy metals from the earth, pollutants from the air. They do not kill to live; they photosynthesize energy directly from sunlight. How’s that for compassionate action and living as one interbeing?

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 117 – 4/12/2023

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Union with the Cosmos

“When dwelling on union with the cosmos . . . you discover that there is a possibility of losing your ground, losing the whole union completely, losing your identity as yourself, and dissolving into an utterly and completely harmonious situation, which is, of course, the experience of luminosity…”

~The Tibetan Book of the Dead~

~

and then the day came when they finally stopped looking for the divine elsewhere—in the books, theories, systems, steps; in later, bigger, better; they stopped turning their back to the miracle of their warm breathing body and the intimate, subtle ways the Goddess was guiding them from within…

the body is a portal opening into a luminous tapestry vibrating through time and space, through every atom, cell, forest, mountain and star; with every breath one feels the goddess weaving the divine story of the be longing field of peace; every heartbeat is the Mother drumming us home to knowing, dignity and the sacred space of interconnection…

let us commit in every breath to co-create a cosmic field of harmony…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 116 – 4/11/2023

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today i am resting in the deep song, el canto hondo which is so easy now that i live on the river… join me in sacred flowing space lulled by the words of Thay,  beloved teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh…

Resting in the River Meditation

“My dear friends, suppose someone is holding a pebble and throws it in the air and the pebble begins to fall down into a river. After the pebble touches the surface of the water, it allows itself to sink slowly into the river.

It will reach the bed of the river without any effort. Once the pebble is at the bottom of the river, it continues to rest. It allows the water to pass by.

I think the pebble reaches the bed of the river by the shortest path because it allows itself to fall without making any effort. During our sitting meditation we can allow ourselves to rest like a pebble. We can allow ourselves to sink naturally without effort to the position of sitting, the position of resting.

The Buddha said, “My practice is the practice of non-practice.” That means a lot. Give up all struggle. Allow yourself to be, to rest.

Let us visualize the waves on the ocean, several waves appearing on the surface of the ocean. Some waves are big, there are those that are small, and each wave seems to have its own life.

…if the wave is able to bend down and touch the water within herself, it will realize that while it is a wave, it is at the same time water. Water is the foundation of the wave. While waves can be high and low, more and less beautiful, the water is free from all these notions. That is why if we are able to touch the foundation of our being, we can release our fear and our suffering.

Touching the foundation of our being means touching nirvana. Our foundation is not subjected to birth and death, being and non-being. A wave can live the life of a wave, but a wave can do much better than that. While living the life of a wave, a wave can live a life of the water. The more our solidity and our freedom grows, the deeper we touch the ground of our own being. That is the door for emancipation, for the greatest relief.”

~

may we all rest in the deep river of peace living the life of water flowing easefully around the obstacles and conflicts in the devocean of interbeing real-eye-sing we all belong to each other…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 115 – 4/10/2023

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today, on the magical mystery tour, i delight in being in a house of mirrors, beautiful mirrors as i look into your soul and see such radiance… thank you for being such a profound reflection of our true nature… your lovingkindness, compassion, generosity, grace, luminescence, humor, sensitivity, presence, devotion, joy, peace, patience, passion, curiosity and on and on enrich and inspire me in every moment… thousand fold thanks and deep bows…

april is national poetry month and on this 10th day while reflecting on the sacred mirrors, let’s also tune into outer and inner birds  flocking around reminding us to be openhearted and free  and singing a joyful song, re-joy-sing…

“may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there’s never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile”

~ e.e. cummings ~

may we travel in a  sacred way reflecting our true nature of lovingkindness, compassion, peace and joy…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 114 – 4/9/2023

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 on this movable feast day of rebirth and resurrection in the midst of these unprecedented times of so much suffering as we are all thrown into the whirlwind of mutation, a soul song of joy quietly sings me and breathes me whispering of our dying to what doesn’t serve, to what has been corrupted and to open space for innocence, the inner sense of joy to rise again, to see through the fresh eyes of a child beholding the world as a wilder-ness of wonder…

how joyous it is to celebrate this act of rebellious spirit, of being reborn, of being in the world but not of the world, of being in this great turning together and awakening more and more into the heart knowing that we are beloved community, we interbe…

in this moment, this beautiful moment of eternity where we can choose to dwell no matter what is happening in the outer world, let us attune to, get in tune with the river of joy always flowing through us to the tune of may our hearts be softened, may our minds be purified, may our words be more tenderly spoken, may our thoughts extend love to every living thing, may our actions be a blessing unto the world, may our souls shine and may we be continually humbled, grounded in and saturated with wave after wave of transforming love and grace bringing greater comfort and understanding to every sentient being who desires it… may we move more deeply into beloved’s embrace now so that we may be consouled as one… let us seal this re-joy-sing in the revolutionary energy of joy, love and peace passing all understanding and landing us in the sheltering energy of great mystery…

loving our walking home and serving in joy together…

namaste and deep bows, beloveds…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 113 – 4/8/2023

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nowhere to now here

anxiety, overwhelm, listlessness, disorientation, frustration, heartbreak and tenderness are some of the feelings many of us are experiencing in this nowhere, in-between phase of the great mutation, transfiguring us from caterpillars to butterflies and is the kind of place we usually want to avoid… we are challenged to stay in this nowhere space rather than buy into struggle and complaint, to soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid… when we are brave enough to stay in nowhere, compassion arises like the sun… organically dissolving into the caterpillar stew of not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what cannot be known, dying to the false self, we open to birthing the true self, our new butterfly way of being…

take heart! we are made for this moment of coming home to now here from nowhere…

always being, always becoming… always arrived, always arriving…

may we  wander from nowhere to now here with heart wide open letting golden light sync into every pore feeling mama gaia singing us, dancing us, pulsing us, breathing us, celebrating us, loving us, at-oneing us, blessing us… deep peace of gaia’s humming resonance…

come, join with me standing in love for love in the center of interbeing around the children’s fire where we dream the new story, where singing waters hum in harmony bathing the new world lovingly, peacefully, joyfully, beautifully, where we build beloved community in the new jerusalem of stillness… behold, graceland!

now is the moment for inner awakening, for listening for the call of  soul, the whispers of our one heart encouraging our slowing down to come home and tend the garden of our genius, the spark of light, the inner flame that is eternal and immortal, the dream that will never die…. yes, may we be instruments of  peace built on justice guided by love, hollow reeds of flowing lovingkindness…